Thursday, January 8, 2015

THE PROBLEM WITH SELMA

Saw SELMA and it was even
worse than I thought from reading about its numerous inaccuracies. Many of the scenes
(all of the ones with LBJ) are complete fiction. It’s a dishonest, lazy, shoddy piece of filmmaking
that twists real events to no good end as the real story is much more powerful
and meaningful. The director has
admitted he doesn’t care about history only about story. What an asshole! I hope LBJ’s family sues him for slander....In
particular....

1.) Wiretaps on MLK started
during JFK’s administration not during LBJ’s which is the movie’s version. The FBI under the maniacal racist Hoover
during this time operated on its own authority and continued bugging MLK even
after JFK’s death. When LBJ found about
the extent of what Hoover did, he ended this.

2.) The decision to send MLK’s
wife a tape of him with another woman was not LBJ’S. That was pure Hoover and there’s no proof LBJ
ever heard or knew of this recording.
That is just an ugly mistruth presented on screen – Inexcusable. JFK got a kick out of listening to it though supposedly

3.) Telephone transcripts
show Johnson pushing the voting Rights Act and in perfect agreement with King
much of the time. In fact, LBJ sound
more like the radical urging King to keep the pressure on through demonstration
on while he applies pressure at his end through Congress and even on business
leaders.

4.) There is no proof Johnson
wanted to put off the Voting Rights Act in order to deal with the War on
Poverty – A major contention of the film.
He was not a weak president like Obama and could have easily handled
both (and did). No one associated with the
Johnson administration backs up this fiction.

5.) Johnson considered the
Voting Rights Act one of his greatest achievements. You wouldn’t get that feeling from this
movie. The LBJ in the movie is weak and
indecisive and panicky nothing like the real Johnson who was incredibly full of
himself as every biography and everyone who knew him points out.

6.) The legal decision by a
judge that paved the way for the third and most successful Selma march was not
a result of pressure by the civil rights movement. It was the Johnson Administration that made
the final push for this (In the film you are led to believe MLK was completely
responsible for this)

7.) In general, MLK and LBJ
had a decent relationship which the taped telephone calls show. Their relationship was well documented. The movie is nothing like the reality. Johnson threatening King is laughable.

8.) In addition to LBJ, the
film gets a few kicks in at Malcom X’s expense as well. I understand the MLK vs. Malcolm X thing. Guess I’m more of a Malcolm X guy as he had a
global view of the struggle for justice.
King took longer to grasp that.

9.) The film seems to be
saying that MK never had any extramarital sexual relationships. Better not to discuss the issue at all then
to lie. Even his closest aides like
Joseph Lowery have said he hooked up with women. It doesn’t diminish his legacy but lying
about it in a movie does.

Overall, this is like a glossy
made for TV movie. An Oprah Winfrey vanity
project (She produced it and appears in a reoccurring role, a fictional character,
as a woman attempting to vote). Like
everything else she touches, it’s garbage.

The scenes of violence, crowd
scenes are competently handled and there is an attempt to link stopping black
people from voting and police violence to ongoing issues today. I think that was the director’s intent. I just wished he hadn’t twisted history to do
it as it ruins the whole film

And let me state again, the
treatment of LBJ is shameful.

Also the actor who plays MLK
looks nothing like him and Tim Roth as George Wallace? Hahahahahahah - One of
the worst miscastings in history.